The 9/11 Firemen have been at the center of the story since day one. They were the men, we are told, that rushed into the towers when everyone else fled. They were the consummate 9/11 heroes. They were the very symbol of American loss on that day.

That is why study of the 9/11 Firemen has remained, for nine long years, a subject taboo to research and even to discussion.

Yet, in the wake of plentiful research proving irregularities among the passengers and even the occupants of the Towers, the mystery of the Firemen remained.

The idea that these subjects were off limits to research and discussion was more than barrier enough to secure their shenanigans from being found out, and to keep them hidden in the dark. It would break all taboos of speaking ill of the dead, and the heroes of 9/11 to ask even the first question. As long as this spell lasted, there would be no questions asked, and no discoveries made, about what happened to the 343 Firemen on 9/11.

Taboos be damned, we had to have answers, so we began to assemble the necessary research to see what answers were available in the data. It didn’t take long for the trends to become crystal clear.

I collected information from all of the major Memorials.

Each Memorial lists 343 Firefighters, the Official number from the FDNY.

However, there are 347 total firefighters and paramedics listed in the various Memorials, no two memorials totally in agreement.

In the following article, I will present data to show that;

1. Very few are listed in the Social Security Death Index (15%)2. Nearly all received benefits from the Victim’s Compensation Fund(85%)3. The distribution of the Firemen by Company is significantly different than what would be expected, and4. The rank distribution is top-heavy.

The Firemen and the SSDIThe Social Security Death Index is the means by which the Social Security Administration keeps track of which issued numbers (persons) need to be removed from the Tax/Benefit rolls. Every death in the United States should be recorded in the SSDI, provided that person was issued a Social Security Number. Only 15% of the 9/11 Firemen are accounted for in the SSDI. This number is so significantly low, that no attempt can be made to explain it. All of the people I know to be dead show up in the SSDI under some form of their name. Yet only 15% of these Firemen can be found there.

Here is the data, broken down alphabetically for organization’s sake.

The Firemen and the VCFWhere the Victim’s Compensation Fund is concerned, the results for the 9/11 Firemen were completely opposite those for the SSDI. A whopping 85% of these same Firemen showed up when it came time for a huge payoff. According to the Final Report, the VCF money paid to the Firemen totaled $559,197,606.41, which is about 1.9 million for each of the 294 claimants.

The final breakdown in the four possible categories is as follows:

SSDI YES, VCF YES = 43 = 13%

SSDI YES, VCF NO = 8 = 2%

SSDI NO, VCF YES = 251 = 72%

SSDI NO, VCF NO = 45 = 13 %

As you can see, the overwhelming majority are those who are not in the SSDI, but are in the VCF. It is also odd that the number of those yes/yes and no/no are nearly equal, and the yes/no’s are nearly non-existent. This is not what we would expect to see from random recording error. Actually the numbers we would realistically expect to see are 100% in the SSDI, and nearly 100% in the VCF.

The Firemen and Loss Distribution

No One Died From This Company

Or This One

The distribution of losses by Company can be best briefly illustrated in this brief article:

Quote:

The Shame of Ladders 1, 8, and 10. by Phil Jayhan and Larry McWilliams

The firehouse containing the proud men of NYFD Ladder 10 sat in the great shadows of the World Trade Center. It was literally across the street. It cannot be argued that it would necessarily have the shortest response time to an event at either Tower.

Yet on 9/11, only one of these proud men lost his life in the "collapse" of the towers across the street.

Ladder 1's Firehouse was third closest, a half mile away. Ladder 1 lost not a single man on 9/11.

Ladder 8 is less than a mile away, and is the next closest, and the last of four that are within a mile of the event. Ladder 8 also lost only one man on 9/11.

Unless I am completely wrong, firemen work as teams, like brothers, like a second family. How is it that Ladder 10, closest to the very first "hit", only had one fireman close enough to the "collapses" to be killed.

Where were his brothers?

Did Ladder 1, with a 3 minute response time, arrive third, only to stay back a safe distance?

When 343 firefighters are reported to have died responding to the WTC on 9/11, is it reasonable to believe that a Ladder Company in its shadow lost only one man? No, of course not.

Are we to believe that the firemen of Ladder 1 are a bunch of chickenshits who stayed well clear of the danger on that fateful day? Not hardly.

Are we to believe that the "dead" firemen of 9/11 were spread out across the department with no correllation to distance to the Alarm or function? Yes, it seems that way.

There were 41 Engine and Ladder Companies within 10 minutes of the WTC. On 9/11, they accounted for only 100 of the 343 firemen "dead". This is simply not possible. Each Company should have been together, and these should have been the farthest up the towers, and most likely to die in whole units.

Yet the only thing close to that is the loss of 11 men by Ladder 3, who had the 12th farthest response time at 2.1 miles/8 minutes.

These numbers make no sense when held up to the harsh light of reality. The men of Ladder 10 were the closest to and the most familiar with the Towers in their front yard, and yet only one man was left in their shadow when they fell.

Breakdown of Firehouses within 10 minutes of the WTC

Here is a complete breakdown of the Firemen by Company.

There were 8 ladder companies and 10 engine companies that lost only one man.

Since Firemen work in teams, and use the buddy system (just like swimming, you never go alone, and look after your assigned buddy), how in the world is this possible at all?

Much less times 18?

Ladder 3 reportedly lost 11 men, so if there are that many men on a ladder company roster, how could these 8 ladders only send one guy up?The answer to these questions is obvious; these numbers are in no way realistic.

The Firemen and Rank Distribution

The rank of the Firemen lost is yet another issue. The rank of the dead is seemingly top-heavy.

92 ranked firemen died on 9/11. They account for 27% of the casualties.

23 were Chief and above.

23 were Captains.

46 were Lieutenants.

I included Fr. Judge with the Captains. So, Chiefs and Captains are equal at 23. The number of Lieutenants is exactly twice that. So, Chiefs = Captains, and Chiefs + Captains = Lieutenants. The perfectly even distribution of rank among Officers is uncanny, and unlikely to be by coincidence. It also does not reflect how the ranks should have been distributed, heavy at the bottom. The overwhelming number of men climbing those towers would have been front line Firemen, Yet the data shows more than one Officer for every three Firemen.

This is again wrong for reality, but right for spreading payoff money, heavy at the top. Buy up the top dogs with the slickest retirement plan ever. There is simply no explanation for the fact that 1 out of every 4 Firemen lost were Ranked.

We have all heard stories regarding corruption in big city Police and Fire Departments and their Labor Unions. New York’s are among the largest and oldest. With higher ups paid off, it is not difficult to envision a scenario of payoffs within that possible climate of institutional corruption, especially with almost 600 Million to go around. This kind of thing fits right in with this type of culture of corruption, as corruption can then be co-opted, and the participants can't squeal.

It is likely that as we fill in all of the details on the 347 names listed below, that we will find them to be spread within the categories shown in this thread, ranging from total Operation Northwoods fakes, to real firemen who were allowed to disappear with a Platinum Parachute.

The Firemen's Catalogue

I have catalogued the 9/11 Firemen Alphabetically. The following posts contain the basic information on each one. This will be the reference from which to move on to the investigation of the individual Firemen, just as was done for the Passengers.